Central Park Zoo Eurasian eagle owl "Flaco" set free by vandals at Central Park Zoo

ZooElephantMan

ZooElephantMan

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Rescuers Attempt to Catch Owl Set Free by Vandals at Central Park Zoo

Rescuers attempt to catch owl set free by vandals at Central Park Zoo in Manhattan | abc7ny.com

“A Eurasian eagle owl at Central Park Zoo was discovered missing from its exhibit at 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening. The exhibit had been vandalized and the stainless steel mesh cut. Upon notification, a team was mobilized to search for the bird. Citizens and police spotted the owl on the sidewalk on 5th Avenue but it flew off. Zoo staff located the owl perched in a tree near the zoo and stayed with it throughout the night. At sunrise this morning, the owl flew from the tree on 5th Avenue and into Central Park where we continue to have visual contact with the bird. Our focus and effort at this time is on the safe recovery of the owl. We will issue updates as needed.”
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
Rescuers Attempt to Catch Owl Set Free by Vandals at Central Park Zoo

Rescuers attempt to catch owl set free by vandals at Central Park Zoo in Manhattan | abc7ny.com

“A Eurasian eagle owl at Central Park Zoo was discovered missing from its exhibit at 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening. The exhibit had been vandalized and the stainless steel mesh cut. Upon notification, a team was mobilized to search for the bird. Citizens and police spotted the owl on the sidewalk on 5th Avenue but it flew off. Zoo staff located the owl perched in a tree near the zoo and stayed with it throughout the night. At sunrise this morning, the owl flew from the tree on 5th Avenue and into Central Park where we continue to have visual contact with the bird. Our focus and effort at this time is on the safe recovery of the owl. We will issue updates as needed.”
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Just when the issues with vandals at Dallas finally get resolved, here come the copycats. Really hope this doesn't spiral into a trend. :(
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
Rescuers Attempt to Catch Owl Set Free by Vandals at Central Park Zoo

Rescuers attempt to catch owl set free by vandals at Central Park Zoo in Manhattan | abc7ny.com

“A Eurasian eagle owl at Central Park Zoo was discovered missing from its exhibit at 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening. The exhibit had been vandalized and the stainless steel mesh cut. Upon notification, a team was mobilized to search for the bird. Citizens and police spotted the owl on the sidewalk on 5th Avenue but it flew off. Zoo staff located the owl perched in a tree near the zoo and stayed with it throughout the night. At sunrise this morning, the owl flew from the tree on 5th Avenue and into Central Park where we continue to have visual contact with the bird. Our focus and effort at this time is on the safe recovery of the owl. We will issue updates as needed.”
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Do we have to idiot-proof EVERY SINGLE exhibit in zoos across the country now? Good lord.
 
Corangurilla said:
The zoo has given up on returning Flaco. He’s able to hunt for himself, so at least he’s doing better than Gladys from Minnesota?
New York zoo ends attempt to recapture Flaco the owl in Central Park | New York | The Guardian
By the way, does the zoo have another EEO?
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They are just gonna let a nonnative apex predator free reign? that seems incredibly irresponsible to me, what if he tries to hybridize with native Great Horned Owls? Surely the AZA doesn't want to lose a potential breeding animal for the SSP either which as far as i know the Eurasian Eagle Owl is a SSP species.
 
Aardwolf said:
They aren't giving up per se - they are opportunistically keeping an eye out for him and are planning on making additional recapture attempts as the opportunity presents itself. A lot of the headlines from the media have brushed over this. Statement from WCS below:

Update on Eurasian Eagle Owl, Flaco
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The situation with Flaco has caused, unsurprisingly, quite the drama in the NYC birding scene, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the behaviour of certain individuals is hampering recovery efforts, possibly influencing the zoo's change in tactics. An example from Twitter:

FpMaGrUWYBMbsrK


(I really discourage anyone from browsing the #FreeFlaco tag on Twitter, unless you want to see an absolute mess of Animal Rights Activists with no grasp of zoological facilities and basic ecology.)
 
kermodei said:
The situation with Flaco has caused, unsurprisingly, quite the drama in the NYC birding scene, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the behaviour of certain individuals is hampering recovery efforts, possibly influencing the zoo's change in tactics. An example from Twitter:

FpMaGrUWYBMbsrK


(I really discourage anyone from browsing the #FreeFlaco tag on Twitter, unless you want to see an absolute mess of Animal Rights Activists with no grasp of zoological facilities and basic ecology.)
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Until I went birding in Central Park, I had no idea how dramatic and vicious a birding scene could be!
 
Not sure if this really counts as an update for the zoo, but figured it would interest folks none the less: "Flaco" the Eurasian eagle-owl, who was illegally released from his enclosure at the zoo in February of 2023, has reportedly made his first venture out of Central Park. Yesterday, November 6th 2023, he was sighted five miles outside of the park, in a tree within a sculpture garden next to Kenkeleba House. He eventually headed East and there have yet to be further sightings as far as I know.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the birders who made any attempts of bringing Flaco home so difficult have continued their obsessive nonsense, with David Barrett, the man behind the awful Twitter account "Manhattan Bird Alert", requesting the director of Kenkeleba House to "open the garden so that he and other Flaco followers could get a look at the owl in a new setting."

06flaco-01-superJumbo.jpg

(Photo by Jacqueline Emery, showing Flaco within the sculpture garden.)

Source: Flaco the Owl, Zoo Escapee, Leaves Central Park for the East Village, Ed Shanahan
 
kermodei said:
Not sure if this really counts as an update for the zoo, but figured it would interest folks none the less: "Flaco" the Eurasian eagle-owl, who was illegally released from his enclosure at the zoo in February of 2023, has reportedly made his first venture out of Central Park. Yesterday, November 6th 2023, he was sighted five miles outside of the park, in a tree within a sculpture garden next to Kenkeleba House. He eventually headed East and there have yet to be further sightings as far as I know.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the birders who made any attempts of bringing Flaco home so difficult have continued their obsessive nonsense, with David Barrett, the man behind the awful Twitter account "Manhattan Bird Alert", requesting the director of Kenkeleba House to "open the garden so that he and other Flaco followers could get a look at the owl in a new setting."

06flaco-01-superJumbo.jpg

(Photo by Jacqueline Emery, showing Flaco within the sculpture garden.)

Source: Flaco the Owl, Zoo Escapee, Leaves Central Park for the East Village, Ed Shanahan
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The sorry state people have gotten to to release a captive held Eurasian Eagle owl. The sheer ignorance is mindboggling. Any chance the wol might be recaptured?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
The sorry state people have gotten to to release a captive held Eurasian Eagle owl. The sheer ignorance is mindboggling. Any chance the wol might be recaptured?
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They stopped trying to catch him a while ago, and it would be a PR nightmare if they tried again. He seems to be doing fine on his own, thankfully!
 
TinoPup said:
They stopped trying to catch him a while ago, and it would be a PR nightmare if they tried again. He seems to be doing fine on his own, thankfully!
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I'd be curious to know, honestly, if the Central Park Zoo has faced any sort of internal repercussions regarding the whole Flaco fiasco. To quote Rachel Garner of the blog Why Animals Do The Thing:

"This whole situation is one of the things that really makes me want to be a fly on the wall inside AZA accreditation meetings. Central Park Zoo is AZA, and it’s unbelievable that somehow they’ve faced no real problems with compliance for just… not managing to catch a loose escaped collection animal. Especially one that’s large, non-native, and highly charismatic.

A big part of AZA standards is that if animals leave a zoo’s control, the zoo is responsible for ensuring that the new location is providing appropriate care for the animal. If they don’t, they can get in a lot of trouble for irresponsibly disposing of them. “Oops, we lost him in NYC” does not exactly count. Regardless of the practicality of catching him at this point, I can’t overstate how much it would be such a huge deal if this happened at a non-AZA zoo - like I would 110% percent expect AZA’a CEO to make derogatory statements to the media about how irresponsible and unprofessional it is for a theoretical roadside zoo to just lose an animal like that and then choose to abandon him to fend for himself, etc etc. But because Central Park is AZA, I guess there’s just different rules? And AZA seems to be just fine with Flaco being loose and risking all sorts of possible harmful welfare and health impacts. Now, AZA makes all accreditation stuff proprietary, so maybe Central Park has gotten their hand slapped out of public view but… the whole thing just seemingly being NBD is mind blowing.

If Flaco were to escape now - in late 2023 - and not be recaptured, I’m pretty sure would actually be USDA violation for the zoo. Yet his escape in February 2023 wasn’t, by virtue of a timing loophole and the fact that new regulations have some lag time built in before compliance is mandatory. USDA finally expanded their remit to birds in addition to mammals, and the new rules were promulgated in Feb 2023! But facilities with existing licenses had until August to get into compliance. Which means, basically, that both the regulatory mechanism and the accrediting ones meant to ensure that the zoo actually is fully responsible for Flaco didn’t work. AZA because they just dgaf, and USDA because it happened just before they actually had the necessary jurisdiction."
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Source
 
StoppableSan said:
https://twitter.com/TheWCS/status/1761231400374604273?s=19

An unfortunate update about Flaco.
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the green lining I guess is at least he won't hybridize with any native Great Horned Owls at least :(

A shame the pathetic "animal rights" people prevented Central Park Zoo from recapturing him, and I hope they know its their actions not the zoos that killed Flaco, he could of lived a great many years and even possible been able to pass his genes on, but those people had to ruin it, I can see Central Park Zoo getting PR problems from both sides now.
 
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